Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are many things that separate cities from regions, the most obvious being population density and the distance that separates where people live. This is especially evident for those people separated from their friends, their family or, indeed, members of their own cultural group. That is why those of us who live in regional areas value the many voluntary and fellowship support groups that play an important part in our community.

I wish to draw your attention to some of these groups in and around the electorate of Charlton. The Filipino Australian Society of the Hunter Valley is located in Boolaroo and is the primary cultural centre for around 500 of its members, who live across the Hunter region. Their hall is used to deliver the school of Philippine studies as well as welfare, health and social education. They also hold regular social activities, including traditional Filipino dancing. Other communities such as a regular sewing group I met there recently, a youth group and a choir use their facilities as well. It is great to see different cultures interacting in this one facility. A group predominantly of Anglo-Saxon retirees was doing a sewing group right next to a group of Filipino women doing a cooking class. It is a great on-the-ground example of cultures meshing and communicating with each other.

The Vedic Samiti Newcastle, whose hall at Cardiff South is used by the Indian community to teach and practise their Hindu faith as well as to provide a space to deliver language and cultural studies, philosophy programs and other social and celebratory activities, is another example of a cultural group in Charlton. This hall is used by around 300 members of the Hindu community each week, although I am told that a recent event had 500 people there in standing room only.

As well as these two groups, the Ethnic Communities Council of Newcastle and Hunter Region, which has been recognised as the umbrella organisation for multiculturalism in the Hunter region for more than 40 years, services the Charlton community. It has a large cultural centre in Waratah in the electorate of Newcastle that is used by its 120 member groups across the electorates of Newcastle, Charlton, Paterson, Hunter and Shortland. These groups promote awareness and understanding of their cultures in our area and encourage interaction with the local community, which builds a rich and multicultural fabric in our region.

It was with great excitement that these organisations received news in August that their applications for funding through the Building Multicultural Communities Program was successful. The Filipinos were to use their grant of more than $22,000 to build a brand new kitchen and install doors in their hall, which is located in an old church building. I was really pleased to visit their hall, and they were very excited by the opportunity to get a new kitchen for their community organisation and hall. Vedic Samiti was to receive around $100,000 in funding to extend the hall, including further car park provisions and an upgrade to their audio system. The ethnic communities council was to receive more than $150,000 through the program so build the first-ever multicultural men's shed and community gardens at their cultural centre. I know there are many members across all political parties who are supporters of men's sheds who would have been very excited by the concept of a multicultural men's shed.

The great part about these projects, of course, is the broader benefit to the community. Anyone can head to one of these places to take part in the activities held there. For example, I could hear from one of the many guest speakers such as doctors and ethicists who hold forums at the Vedic Samiti hall. I could learn about the traditional costumes of the Philippines from the ladies in the Filipino hall. I could attend one of the many health and wellness events at the ethnic communities council.

These much-needed grants were cause for great excitement, but I regret to inform you that this excitement was short lived. It has quickly transformed to frustration and application, with these organisations now hearing from departmental officials that the new coalition government is undertaking a review and that their funding is in limbo. This is despite these grants being announced in August, prior to the caretaker period and the federal election. This is despite the grants being fully funded in the 2012-13 budget and despite the fact that the minister very clearly signed off on these grants before the caretaker period began. This is in spite of the fact that the now current Minister for Immigration and Border Protection tabled the approved grants in parliament last month.

So what is going on here? That is the question I asked the responsible minister, the member for Menzies, and his parliamentary secretary, Senator Fierravanti-Wells, on behalf of these organisations in my electorate. I have written to the minister and parliamentary secretary, seeking their commitment to honour these funding agreements as a matter of urgency. Unfortunately, I am yet to receive a response. It is worth noting that the funding agreements for the Building Multicultural Communities Program stipulated that projects be completed by 30 June 2014—just over six months away. It is only natural, then, that these groups have already entered into the preparatory stages of these projects and in some cases have already outlaid money towards them. In the case of Vedic Samiti, they are currently out of pocket more than $14,000 after undergoing a lengthy building design and development approval process. The Ethnic Communities' Council has invested more than $30,000 in plans, DA approvals, electrical work and site preparation, not to mention the untold hours of volunteer and staff time invested in the project so far.

It is also worth noting that each of these groups receives some of their funding through stream 1 of the grant program, which required non-fixed infrastructure and equipment to be purchased first, before the application was made for reimbursement. So it was natural that some of the moneys that they had planned to spend had to be spent before they received the grant.

These groups acted in good faith, expecting the government to be true to its words. These were not election promises, as Minister Andrews has tried to suggest; they were grants awarded under proper process. We know that local community groups run on shoestring budgets and simply cannot carry these expenses. At the very least, the government must communicate with them and make their intentions clear. They cannot leave them in the dark any longer.

This arrogant and mischievous act is just one of a series of worrying signs that the new coalition government is sending to multicultural organisations across Australia, including in Charlton. In government, Labor worked hard to lift both the status and the substance of the multicultural affairs portfolio, but this new government has abolished a cabinet minister and two parliamentary secretary positions with multicultural responsibilities that we established, and lumped the management of multicultural affairs and settlement services under the control of the newly created Department of Social Services. Of course, their continuing stigmatisation of people seeking asylum breeds a disturbing culture in which attitudes towards diversity suffer. Perhaps this should come as no surprise. In opposition, the coalition failed to release a multicultural policy and failed to use the word 'multicultural' in any of its front bench titles.

I represent an area built on coalmining and steel milling, which drew its labour force from massive migration to the Hunter region in the early 1900s and then again post World War II. Just last month, I joined the Mayor of Lake Macquarie to witness 113 people from 27 different countries take the pledge to become Australian citizens—the largest ceremony that the City of Lake Macquarie has ever held. Multiculturalism is a fact of life in Australia and, indeed, in the electorate I represent. It adds enormous value to our community and needs to be acknowledged and celebrated as such. It goes without saying that social policy should be built around this principle. It is an absolute disgrace that this government is denying community organisations and not-for-profit groups in Charlton crucial funds—funds that were awarded under proper procedures and fully provided for in the budget. These are people who empower our community and create socially inclusive neighbourhoods. I call on the minister to release these funds without delay to the Filipino-Australian Society of the Hunter Valley, Vedic Samiti Newcastle, and the Ethnic Communities Council, Newcastle and Hunter Region, and stop playing politics with our multicultural organisations.

The Liberal Party and the coalition once had a proud record of support for multiculturalism. I particularly applaud the efforts of the Fraser government in accepting and welcoming thousands of Vietnamese refugees in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Unfortunately, this commitment, with a few honourable exceptions, was lost under Prime Minister Howard, and I fear that that trend is worsening under Prime Minister Abbott. I think it is time that they had a change of heart and honour commitments made by a previous government, not during an election period but fully funded in a budget process. They should give certainty to these community organisations who, throughout this entire country, and in my electorate in particular, do such sterling work. I call on them to do so. (Time expired)